TURNPIKE TO BE PART OF NEW HEINZ HISTORY CENTER EXHIBIT ON PITTSBURGH’S TRADITION OF INNOVATION

The Pennsylvania Turnpike will be part of a new exhibit entitled “Pittsburgh: A Tradition of Innovation” opening Saturday, Nov. 8 at the Smithsonian-affiliated Senator John Heinz Regional History Center in the City’s Strip District.

“We’re proud of the fact that the Heinz Center has invited us to participate in this wonderful display,” said Turnpike CEO Joe Brimmeier. “It is an acknowledgement that the Turnpike indeed was America’s First Superhighway and a testament to the engineers, contractors and laborers who crafted the prototype for our great interstate highway system.”

The Turnpike’s section in the exhibit will include parts of an original toll booth and various images and artifacts to help convey just how far ahead of its time the Turnpike was when the original 160-mile mainline opened between Irwin and Carlisle in October 1940.

Among the innovations for convenient, faster motor travel established by Turnpike designers were travel lanes 12 feet wide, a maximum three percent grade to facilitate the movement of freight, a minimum sight distance of 600 feet from driver to traffic ahead and the limited-access nature of the roadway with all cross streets, rails and crosswalks either passing under or over the new toll road.

“It is certainly appropriate that the story of the Pennsylvania Turnpike be one of the stories featured in our innovators exhibit,” said Lauren Uhl, Museum Project Manager at the Heinz Center. “And that spirit of innovation continues today with services such as E-ZPass electronic fare collection.”

The Senator John Heinz Regional History Center, located at 1212 Smallman Street, is a formal affiliate of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.